Waabigan

Waabigan is the Ojibwe word for Clay and the name of Chanelle’s ceramic business. She is a local Ojibwe potter who creates contemporary functional pottery inspired by water, our mother earth, and the beauty of her ancestors. She has been a part of the Minneapolis Clay Collective since 2022 which allows her to share communal studio space in the Q.arma Building. Currently, she is researching woodland pottery from the Great Lake Region as the 2024 Native American Artist-in-Resident at the Minnesota Historical Society. She is using archeological collections housed at the Minnesota Historical Society to study patterns, techniques, clay types, and utilization of woodland pottery. In her independent research she discovered items in the collection belonging to her relatives. The flower bloom from her  logo is a bloom from her ancestor’s dancing vest that she found in the Minnesota Historical Society. She hopes to use more historic pieces as inspiration for her contemporary work. For Art-A-Whirl, she hopes to share the beginning of her research as well as her contemporary work inspired by woodland pottery and designs.